Sure, Johannes Debus is a conductor, but he considers himself, first and foremost, a conversationalist.

“The most rewarding part of what I do is if I’m able to create the connection between the musicians and myself and the audience,” Debus said last week from Seattle, where he was preparing to conduct the Seattle Symphony. “What we’re trying to do is get a conversation going between the musicians and the audience. They are an equal partner in this. Sure, we can sit in a recording studio and record. But to me, the live concert clearly is about the conversation. It’s important that the audience is engaged and active in a certain way.

“After a concert, there is applause — it’s a cathartic moment,” he said. “It’s a form of appreciation, but it’s also releasing the tension, the excitement — everything we on stage and you in the audience went through during the time of the concert.”

San Diegans can experience firsthand what Debus describes when he returns Dec. 9 and 10 to the Jacobs Music Center to conduct the San Diego Symphony in a program that, in his words, “captures the flavor of the holiday season.” The evening will feature works by Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Humperdinck.

The evening will open with the prelude to “Hänsel und Gretel” by the 19th century German composer Engelbert Humperdinck. It was first performed by the San Diego Symphony in 1941 and didn’t make it back into the orchestra’s repertoire until the 2010-11 season.

“I was thinking about this time of the year, which according to the calendar, is wintertime, and it’s the holiday season,” Debus said. “I was thinking about music that reflects the season, and to me, there’s a certain form of sweetness, of gallantry, which I find in Mozart and Tchaikovsky.

“We have the element of dreams, that nostalgic feeling and the world of winter in an abstract way. Of course, in their music, there’s not a single moment where we hear the snow falling. Instead, it has a certain more contemplative character.”

Debus promises an evening of contemplation but also “bright and glorious and energetic” music.

“We will end on a joyous note,” he vowed.

‘Ingredients of great music’

Tchaikovsky’s “Winter Daydreams” is one of those works that belongs in a rarefied category.

“It’s an absolute masterpiece,” Debus said of the Russian composer’s Symphony No. 1 in G minor, Op. 13. “It’s really full of the ingredients of great music — hauntingly beautiful melodies, the human palette of emotions. You go from grief and despair to more melancholic tunes to pompous joy.

“It’s really great piece,” he said. “I love it dearly.”

The Mozart piece — Concerto in C Major for Flute and Harp, K. 299 (297c) — was written for the daughter of a count that the composer was tutoring in composition.

“She was not good in that respect,” Debus said, “but she was a great harpist. He wrote for them this concerto, and it feels a bit written for the palace. It has a certain chamber music feel to it. It’s a little bit more intimate. The orchestra is far more reduced. It’s a sweet, gallant piece that Mozart wrote. The second movement is an absolute marvel, while the last movement is full of wit and humor. It’s a great piece.”

Debus last conducted the San Diego Symphony Nov. 11 in what Union-Tribune critic Christian Hertzog called an “enchanting” evening of French music. So, he’s no stranger to the San Diego ensemble.

“You, as the conductor, you somehow must try to get an idea of what this breathing animal is about,” Debus said of first working with a new group. “But I have to say that I immediately felt there was a connection with the wonderful musicians of the San Diego Symphony. I’ve worked with them before, so I know them better, and there is a mutual trust there.”

The German-born Debus has been the music director of the Canadian Opera Company since 2009 and has conducted orchestras all over the globe.

Working with musicians, he said, “is more than making sure they play the right notes at the right time. It’s about developing a musical imagination, and it’s my task to make sure that happens.”

In San Diego, “they are extremely talented players,” he said. “They are open to different ideas. They’re willing to try. There’s a certain form of curiosity there, an adventurous spirit.

“But ultimately,” he said, “our job is to win you over. We want to draw everyone into the performance, into that world of wonders.

“It’s a privilege and an honor to be able to do that — and ensure that people go home enriched in a certain way.”